


Dress

by thegetawaycar



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 15:24:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18607264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegetawaycar/pseuds/thegetawaycar
Summary: Hi everyone! It's been a while. I really want to get this story finished however I've decided to make a few alterations to it in order to do so, therefore wanted to start again. This chapter is very similar to the first chapter of the last version, however will be different from here on out.Happy reading!





	Dress

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! It's been a while. I really want to get this story finished however I've decided to make a few alterations to it in order to do so, therefore wanted to start again. This chapter is very similar to the first chapter of the last version, however will be different from here on out.  
> Happy reading!

_our secret moments in a crowded room_   
_they’ve got no idea about me and you_   
_there is an indentation in the shape of you_   
_made your mark on me, a golden tattoo_

.

.

.

  
“That sounds good.”  


Beth had been absent-mindedly singing along to the song that she was in the process of writing – one that just didn’t seem to want to leave her in peace at the minute – whilst she had been checking over her hair and make-up. Her eyes widened and searched the mirror that spanned the length of one of her dressing room walls for the older woman.

“Thanks,” Beth responded with a polite smile, swallowing thickly before she returned her attention back to her appearance. “It’s just something that I’ve been working on.” With that, the blonde reached forwards to the jewelry box that held the new pair of golden earrings that she had been gifted especially for the event.

From her peripheral, Beth could see her older sister – and manager – quirk a brow and offer her a questioning look. “New song?” Maggie asked, and Beth simply nodded as she carefully removed the earrings from the box. “I didn’t know you’ were workin’ on anythin’ new.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not even got any proper words or anythin’ yet,” Beth responded.

She didn’t have to look across the room at Maggie to know that her older sister was suspicious.

“Is it about anyone in particular?” the brunette probed, and Beth resisted the urge to huff at her sister’s attempt to sound casual.

Beth didn’t understand why it was so difficult for Maggie to believe that she was just writing a song without anyone influencing her. It was something that she had been doing for years.

“Nope,” Beth responded, popping the _p_. “I told you, Maggie, it’s not even got any real words yet.”

Still unconvinced, Maggie hummed gently. “If you say so, Bethy.”

Beth could tell by the tone of her voice that her older sister was anything but finished with her. Recently, Maggie had been getting awfully interested in her personal life; and where she was going, and when, and with who - _way_ more than usual.

“C’mon,” Maggie broke the silence after a few beats, hopping down from where she had been perched on one of the stools in the dressing room. “Our cars will be here any minute, an’ you’ve still not put your shoes on.”

Releasing a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, Beth nodded her head whilst her stylist applied a final coating of hair-spray to her freshly-wanded hair. Once she was finished, Beth hopped down from her own stool and straightened out the golden ballgown, watching as Maggie checked over her own crimson dress. The blonde turned towards her left side and checked over her appearance one final time before she moved to put on her heels.

Once the two girls had reached the bottom of the spiral staircase that led to the heart of the entrance hallway, Beth received a tight squeeze around the shoulders from her eldest sister.

“You look beautiful, Beth,” Maggie said, and the blonde couldn’t have fought the smile that spread across her face even if she wanted to. Maggie was smiling, too; but the look on her face softened slightly. “Daddy would be so proud of you, you know.”

Swallowing down the lump that swelled in her throat at the mere mention of their father, Beth nodded her head in agreement. “I know,” she said, her voice hoarse and dry and not much louder than a whisper. With a deep breath, Beth willed herself not to cry or become overwhelmed by emotion.

Not tonight.

Two white limousines were awaiting the sisters at the bottom of the steps that led up to Beth’s house, and a nervous sigh escaped from Beth’s lips when they reached the cars. Maggie had very recently insisted that they arrive separately to events like these; her argument being that Beth’s role as a woman in the public eye was to walk the red carpet, engage with interviewers and pose for photographs, whilst Maggie’s role as her manager was to do none of those things.

Whilst Maggie’s explanation made sense, Beth had a feeling that her sister’s motive was more to do with the new face who had been driving her around these last few weeks.

Although it often felt like it should be second nature for her after all of the events that she has been to and how long she has been in the public eye – since the day of her sixteenth birthday, when she signed her first record deal – it was anything but, and Beth felt nothing short of anxious until the moment she left the flashing lights and shouting reporters behind.

With one final reassuring look, Maggie stepped into her vehicle, leaving Beth to follow suit and step into her own. Although the blonde was unable to overhear what was said between Maggie and her driver – a man called Glenn, whom Maggie was personally requesting to drive her more often than not – she could tell by the grin that spread across her sister’s face that it was nothing short of flattering. Beth fought a smile of her own at the thought of her older sister being smitten with her driver before she ducked into her limousine, thanking the driver for closing the door behind her.

.

.

.

_all of this silence and patience, pining and anticipation_  
_my hands are shaking from holding back from you_  
_all of this silence and patience, pining and desperately waiting_  
_my hands are shaking from all of this_

It’s the screaming that she struggles to deal with.

The flashing lights aren’t too bad, really. They aren’t pleasant, that’s for sure; and they are irritating in that they are pretty much blinding, and it’s near impossible to escape them.

But they are still nowhere near as bad as the screams.

The thing is, there are different types of screams that Beth is accustomed to. The screams and cheers and cries of a crowd when she enters a stage, when she finishes a song, when she closes a show – it's just _different_ , and she loves it. Thrives on it, even. It’s an addictive, beautiful sound that brings happiness and fulfilment and a desire for more. It’s a sound that makes her jaw ache from smiling, a sound that causes all of the hairs on her body to stand alert and tears to sparkle in her eyes at the beauty of it all.

The screams and shouts on a red carpet are different to those types of screams.

It’s mostly the reporters and their crew who are hollering at her to make her way over towards them so that their stick-thin, far-too-handsy presenters can ask borderline-offensive questions that focus on her personal life. Although Beth has always kept her romantic relationships quiet – she learned a long time ago to hold anything that she wants to be truly hers close to her chest, and not to share them with others – they still never really ask about her work, her music, her art.

The golden ballgown that she is wearing is truly beautiful. It is. It’s tightly fitted to her slender figure in the most flattering way; with an A-line neck, lace arms and golden flower embellishments that are sprinkled around her upper half and gather at the bottom of the skirt. So, Beth doesn’t bat an eyelid at the questions that are directed at her about it, although she knows that it’s a real pet peeve of Maggie’s.

One thing that she does tire of quickly are the male-orientated questions’ especially given the fact that it is well known just how protective of her private relationships Beth is. Even to her friends and her family, Beth has been almost secretive; never mind to the media or the public.

And people try to connect the dots and pick out hints from her lyrics, but that’s about as much as Beth ever offers nowadays.

Still, questions like _are you dating anyone at the moment_ and _do you have a date with you tonight_ and _is there anyone you’re planning on leaving with_ tire her to no end, especially when they are repeated to her over and over again by different reporters.

 _Grin and bear it_ , she hears Maggie’s voice tell her somewhere in the back of her mind.

_We all have jobs to do._

The thought of her older sister comes as a pleasant distraction, and Beth’s light blue eyes scan over the red carpet, hoping for a glance of the brunette as she makes her way into the building. It’s difficult to see as the long, wide carpet is mostly filled with members of security teams that all belong to different people, and in the end, Beth’s eyes are drawn to another pair of electric blue rather than the green pair that she had initially been searching for.

It feels as though she has been punched in the stomach, and Beth practically freezes on the spot as her heart begins to race within her chest.

She knew that he would be here, but she had purposely not thought much about it.

The two of them had never been at the same event before – apart from the one where they met – and although she had been anticipating this, she had pushed all thoughts of it to the back of her mind out of her desire to _not_ make this something bigger than what it was, or what it needed to be. The last thing that Beth wanted to do was to spook him, and although she had never experienced anything like this before, the blonde had been trying her best not to think about him tonight.

With a sharp intake of breath and her eyes still very much locked onto his, Beth finds it incredibly challenging not to grin at him with a familiarity that they have grown accustomed to. Whilst her lips tremble in their desire – pure instinct to curve upwards at the sight of him – Beth's composure is kept by the thought of there being so many eyes on her.

She wets her lips with her tongue, allowing herself a few more seconds to take him in before she is the one to break their eye contact and make her way towards the next reporter.

“So, Beth,” the beautiful reporter – Rosita, she’s sure that she’s called – says with a dazzling smile, “we are all _dying_ to know if you’re dating anyone right now.”

Beth’s heart is still rabbiting away with excitement in her chest and she has to physically bite down on her tongue; for once, not out of irritation and frustration, but because she feels so inexplicably elated at the sight of him. There is a part of her that so desperately wants to throw caution to the wind and chant that yes, yes, _yes_ she _is_ -

But Beth knows better, and so does he.

So. She lies.

“Not right now,” the blonde responds with a practiced and composed, neutral expression. “I’m just putting so much of my energy into this new album that I’ve spent the best part of a year workin’ on. I am so excited about it, and I just don’t think that I would have the time right now to focus my energy on anythin’ else. On anyone else.”

The lies tumble from her tongue so naturally now, and there’s a part of her that cringes at this life that she leads; a part that wants nothing more than to share her happiness with the world.

Rosita nods her head and appears to be genuinely interested in what Beth has said until she speaks again. “So, would you say that there is a certain someone who we might end up seeing you with in the future, when you’re a little… less busy?”

Almost as if she has been completely frozen in place, Beth’s mind draws a blank, and all that she can think of is him. The thought of him distracts her to no end and Beth stands completely still, her mouth gaping slightly as she stares directly at Rosita.

She has no idea what to say.

Why does she not know what to say?

“Er,” Beth faults, her lips parted and her brows knotted together in confusion. “I - erm – you know what? Thank you very much for your questions,” Beth stutters, cutting the interview short and shaking Rosita’s hand as quickly as she possibly can.

Usually, Beth spends a little more time engaging with reporters, but since she is still feeling taken aback by the last question and has no intention of making herself look any more like a fool, she decides to skip out on the rest of the interview opportunities despite hearing her name being called from several different angles. Instead, Beth heads straight to the entrance of the venue.

As previously planned, Beth meets with Maggie at their table at eight thirty on the dot, and the two sit side by side as people begin to flock into the venue. Charity balls are always fun events as far as Beth is concerned, and she as she writes out a cheque to make a donation, her sister nudges her in the ribs with enough force to make Beth wince.

“Ow!” the blonde hisses as she jumps away from Maggie. Beth throws her older sibling a bitter look, and in the brunette’s defence, she does look quite sheepish.

Hissing back a quick apology, Maggie’s green eyes widened as if Beth was being somewhat over-dramatic. “Look over there,” the older girl states, nodding her head towards their right. “Do you know that guy in the black tux?” Beth’s heart races for the second time that evening as her eyes fly over in the direction that Maggie has signalled, a part of her hoping to see a familiar face, but the disappointment that brews in her belly at the sight of the stranger is something that she expected. “He’s literally been staring at you since we sat down.”

Genuinely disinterested in the unfamiliar man, Beth shrugged her shoulders before handing over her cheque to a member of staff and then reaching for her wine glass. “I’ve no idea who he is,” she says as she raises the glass to her lips and takes a mouthful of sweet liquid.

“Well, it looks like he knows who you are,” Maggie quirks, a smirk playing at her lips. “Or at least, he wants to know.”

The brunette laughed at the sound of her younger sibling's groan, and Beth shakes her head from side to side. “Mags,” she said, fighting the urge to laugh. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m just not interested in dating right now?”

What Beth doesn’t tell her sister is that she isn’t interested in dating anyone _else_ right now.

She’s sure that Maggie would understand. If she knew, of course.

“Whatever you say,” Maggie responds, laughing gently. “All that I’m saying is that if you don’t go for it with him, then I might have to.”

Scoffing, the blonde genuinely laughs at the comment. “Is that so?” Beth quipped, taking another sip of wine. “I didn’t think that you would have wanted anyone else but your driver tonight.”

At Beth’s words, Maggie’s face falls completely, and she practically cracks her neck from how quickly she turned it in her direction. Unable to help herself, Beth lets out a loud laugh at the sight of her sister’s mortified expression.

.

.

.

_say my name and everything just stops_  
_I don’t want you like a best friend_  
_only bought this dress so you could take it off_

__

He finds her backstage sometime later, once the sky has turned from a shade of pink to a deep blue, and after she has performed three songs for the exclusive crowd. Truth be told, she has been thoroughly enjoying herself despite the shakiness from the interview, and the opportunity to perform in front of so many successful people had been one that she could have never refused even if she wanted to.

It was as she was making her way back around to the seated area that she had been grabbed by the hand and practically yanked into a dark room that she wasn’t familiar with. Although she squealed – which she thought was a fair enough reaction considering the fact that she had just been pulled from behind into a small, dark enclosure – a giggle escaped from her lips as her back pressed up against the wall, and she beamed as two large, familiar hands cupped her cheeks.

“Hey,” she murmured as she blinked her light eyes open and found a familiar pair of electric blue staring right back at her.

The sound of his low chuckle caused her heart to race impossibly faster within her chest, and Beth dipped her head slightly as her cheeks began to burn crimson.

It felt as though it had been so long since they had last seen one another; realistically, the blonde supposed that ten days wasn’t all that long to be apart, but given that they were both holding all their cards to their chests – as in nobody knew about them, for their own sanity and prevention of a media circus – Beth had struggled.

“I’ve missed you, Daryl Dixon,” the blonde murmured, and at that, his lips were near enough instantly pressed against her own.

.

.

.

_carve your name into my bedpost  
cause I don’t want you like a best friend  
only bought this dress so you could take it off_


End file.
